Modern Woodmen of America

1844–1883

Modern Woodmen of America (MWA) is a leading fraternal life insurance society in the United States, with more than 750,000 members and assets of more than $6 billion. In addition to providing insurance and financial services, Modern Woodmen maintains nearly 2,200 local chapters, or "camps," and 700 youth service clubs. The group provides an array of free community benefits, such as youth educational programs on topics such as bicycle safety, scholarship programs, and a national student speech contest. MWA is strongest in the Midwest and the South.

Fraternal benefit societies are organized along ethnic, religious, or vocational lines. As nonprofits, they do not have to pay federal income tax. MWA is not connected to the Woodmen of the World fraternal benefit society, although the two groups were started by the same person.

Fraternal Roots

Modern Woodmen was formed in Lyons, Iowa on January 5, 1883 by Joseph Cullen Root. Born December 3, 1844 in Chester, Massachusetts, Root moved to Illinois and Iowa at a young age. He attended Iowa's Cornell College, Northern Illinois College, and graduated from Eastman Business College in Poughkeepsie, New York. He then operated a number of businesses.

Root became involved with a number of fraternal societies over the years, most notably the Freemasons, which he entered around 1877, as well as the Knights of Pythias, the Odd Fellows, and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He also led Vera Amicitia Sempiterna, a fraternal benefit society exclusive to the state of Iowa. He founded Modern Woodmen in 1883, organizing the new society around the lodge system.

Fraternal benefit societies were typically formed by groups of immigrants or religious orders. But Root envisioned one that would "bind in one association the Jew and the Gentile, the Catholic and the Protestant, the agnostic and the atheist." Membership was at first limited, however, to rural residents of midwestern states (Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Indiana, and Ohio).

The health and moral requirements were vigorous. Members had to be white and between the ages of 18 and 45. A whole slew of dangerous jobs also was grounds for disqualification, writes one historian in a Rochester, New York newsletter.

MWA raised $6 million to pay war claims during World War I.

1884–1897

The organization's mission was to help families survive after the loss of a breadwinner. MWA also arranged for community-building events through its local chapters, called "camps." These included meetings, parades, and baseball games.

The name Modern Woodmen alluded to the foresters who cleared the land to build their communities, an image Root culled from a sermon by a local preacher. There was also an element of connection with Root's own name, notes one historian in the Scottish Rite Journal. A patriotic reference was added later, and the group became Modern Woodmen of America (MWA).

Modern Woodmen relocated to Illinois after being incorporated in that state on May 5, 1884. First located in Fulton, the head office moved to Rock Island in 1897.

By 1889, noted the New York Times, the Woodmen had 40,000 members in Iowa and neighboring states. The group also spawned other organizations. A ladies' auxiliary, the Royal Neighbors of America, had been formed in 1888.

After a heated dispute with MWA Head Physician P.L. McKinnie, Root left MWA and launched another fraternal benefit organization, the Woodmen of the World Life Insurance Society, formed in Omaha in 1890.

The group's most visible ambassadors were the Modern Woodmen Foresters, a precision drill team that performed at numerous parades and competitions around the country between 1890 and the early 1930s. According to MWA, more than 160,000 men drilled in 10,000 units over the years.

At the turn of the century, MWA was among the largest of the 188 fraternal insurance companies doing business in the United States, reported the New York Times. These groups had several million members overall.

1903–1994

MWA raised $6 million to pay war claims during World War I. As the New York Times reported, however, influenza and pneumonia deaths nearly caused the group's general fund to drop precariously from $10 million to $640,000 between October 1918 and March 1919.

1909-50: "Chasing the Cure"

The group also had been touched by another epidemic, tuberculosis (TB). In the 19th century, the highly infectious disease had been the leading cause of death in the United States. In 38 years, the Modern Woodmen Tuberculosis Sanatorium treated more than 12,000 members (all of them male) at no cost.

Monument Park, its site nine miles northwest of Colorado Springs, was later renamed Woodmen Valley. According to the Gazette of Colorado Springs, there were 16 other TB sanatoriums in the Pikes Peak region. MWA's facility, which opened on January 1, 1909, was not the first, but it was one of the largest. The region's altitude, dry climate, and clean air were the basis of the therapy. A hearty diet including six raw eggs and up to ten glasses of milk per day was prescribed.

The isolation of the area was another factor in managing the highly contagious disease. According to the Gazette, the sanatorium's tree-lined campus had space for up to 200 patients, housed in individual, octagonal tents (a local doctor had designed them after teepees). The complex had its own dairy and cows.

The sanatorium claimed a 60 percent cure rate. It closed on May 1, 1947 after new drugs became the preferred treatment for TB. The site was sold in 1950 and eventually came into the hands of the Sisters of St. Francis Seraph, who operated it as a health retreat until about 1980. Some of the historic structures, including the dairy barn, were razed in a 1994 fire. MWA kept up its high moral standards in the 20th century. Bootleggers were banned from membership during Prohibition.

A.R. Talbot had become president of Modern Woodmen in 1903. A native of Warren County, Illinois, he had been president of the Nebraska legislature as well as a law partner of William Jennings Bryan. Talbot remained in office for more than three decades and was succeeded in November 1938 by MWA's treasurer, Oscar E. Aleshire of Chicago.

1950–2003

From shortly after MWA's founding to about 1950, members wore a variety of different types of jewelry. These included rings, cuff links, necklaces, and other articles that have become collectors' items. Symbols representing the society and its values included the axe (industry), the wedge (power), and beetle (progress).

There were about 200 fraternal benefit societies in the United States in the early 1990s, reported the New York Times, with a combined customer base of about ten million people. In 1993 A.M. Best Company rated 42 fraternals and found Modern Woodmen to be one of the top six. Assets were then more than $2 billion. While some of the largest fraternal benefit societies were open only to members of certain faiths (particularly Lutherans and Catholics), membership in Modern Woodmen was open to anyone except residents of Alaska, Hawaii, and Nevada. Total revenue reached $609 million in 1995, when assets were more than $3 billion.

New Ventures, New HQ After 2001

Modern Woodmen began a three-year, $25 million renovation of its Rock Island, Illinois headquarters in 2001. Two subsidiaries were soon added: MWA Financial Services, Inc. for investments and MWABank for banking products.

MWABank was an Internet thrift with only one physical branch office in Rock Island, Illinois. It contracted with several ATM networks so its customers across the country could access cash and make deposits. MWABank went online in the spring of 2003.

Assets exceeded $6 billion in 2003. Total income rose $50 million to $1.15 billion. According to American Banker, there were 80 comparable fraternal benefit societies in the United States at the time.

More than 750,000 people were members. MWA's community events continued to be well attended. Nearly 100,000 students from 1,200 schools competed in the 2003 School Speech Contest.